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UNYQ & IKEA Team Up

TCT Magazine reports on a recently announced team up between companies IKEA and UNYQ. Apparently, they have come together in order to develop three personalized 3D printed gaming accessories.

UNYQ were the ones to break the news, explaining these products were created using Carbon’s 3D printing technologies. “The products include a biometric wrist support, soft vented keycaps, and a portable mouse ‘bungee’. They are being brought to market under the UPPKOPPLA, meaning ‘online’, collection, which has been established by UNYQ and IKEA. Their initial aim is to change the way people game, making the activity a more comfortable pastime.”

UNYQ and IKEA explain “the biometric wrist support is connected around the wrist, separating the user’s arm from the desktop and maintaining it at the correct height in accordance with the keyboard to reduce strain on the tendons. Meanwhile, the soft, pliable, vented keycaps serve to make the keyboard feel like a physical extension of a gamer’s fingers and the portable mouse ‘bungee’ prevents the tangling of wires by clamping the user’s mouse cable in place.”

UNYQ aims to make these products commercially available to the public by next year. They will be “accessible via a mobile device app, where users can use their own phone cameras to create personalized and customized versions of these accessories.”

According to UNYQ’s Co-Founder and CEO Eythor Bender: “the gaming community has been overlooked for a long time when it comes to furniture and accessories that are functional and customized, as well as aesthetically suit individuals’ preferences. We have the ability to address the unique needs of these individuals and, in turn, personalize, protect, and improve their game. Additionally, the generative design and additive manufacturing process simplifies and shortens value and supply chains, making it easily replicable across different products, more affordable, and allow individuals to partake in the design process.”

IKEA of Sweden’s Creative Leader Michael Nikolic concludes: “UNYQ has developed a method of creating solutions that fit everyone’s unique needs and tastes, letting customers take design into their hands. It is a great way to give customers exactly what they want, and it also minimizes waste as production is directly aligned with demand and there is no inventory. We are really looking forward to see where this new way of working will take us and are excited to continue to collaborate with UNYQ.”